U.S. Summons Syrian Ambassador over Attack on Diplomat

The United States said Friday it summoned the Syrian ambassador to Washington to read him "the riot act" after President Bashar al-Assad's supporters tried to attack the U.S. envoy in Damascus.

Ambassador Imad Mustapha "was called in to the State Department ... and read the riot act about this incident," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

She added that Mustapha's meeting with Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for near East affairs, took place late Thursday, hours after Assad's supporters tried to attack U.S. ambassador Robert Ford in Damascus.

Mustapha "was reminded that Ambassador Ford is the personal representative of the president (Barack Obama) and an attack on Ford is an attack on the United States," Nuland said.

"He was also asked for compensation for our damaged vehicles," she said, adding "a very strong set of representations were made again about their Vienna convention responsibilities" to protect U.S. diplomats.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that Syria "take every possible step" to protect U.S. diplomats after a spokesman said a mob tried to attack Ford and embassy staff as they visited a Syrian opposition leader in Damascus.

Clinton's deputy spokesman Mark Toner said the pro-regime demonstrators seriously damaged U.S. vehicles and pelted the visitors with tomatoes but did not hurt Ford or his staff.

Opposition figure Hassan Abdelazim, whom the U.S. ambassador had arrived to meet, told AFP that the mob "tried to break down the door of my office, but didn't succeed" during a siege that lasted two hours.

Toner charged that Assad's regime was behind the incident in what he said amounts to a campaign aimed at intimidating U.S. diplomats as they carry out their normal duties.